In vitro Culture of Leukaemic Cells from 81 Patients with Acute Leukaemia

Abstract

Bone marrow and/or blood cells from 81 patients with acute leukaemia, including 50 patients with acute myeloid leukaemia, were cultured in vitro using the agar culture method. The cells were cultured either in a single layer assay or with a normal source of colony stimulating factor (CSF) included in the culture. In almost all cases an abnormal growth pattern was seen, ranging between no growth and an excessive number of clusters. Immature granulocytic cells and macrophages were the dominating cell types in clusters and colonies from 14 out of 16 patients with acute myeloid leukaemia. In the patients with acute myeloid leukaemia the remission induction rate was found to be related to the cluster incidence. Thus, 75 % of the patients with a cluster incidence between 0–100 obtained a complete remission (CR), while only 31 % of the patients with a high cluster incidence (> 1000 / 2 times 105 cells) obtained a remission. Cluster formation in the unstimulated cultures of CSF‐sensitive cells did not seem to be of prognostic value. The correlation between prognosis and in vitro growth in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia stresses the need of obtaining more insight in those factors other than drug sensitivity, which are of importance for the therapeutic response.

The Prognostic Significance of in Vitro Bone Marrow Growth Pattern in Acute Non‐Lymphocytic Leukaemia

“…If the ALL and ANLL patients of the present study were combined we would arrive at conclusions similar to those of Spitzer et a1 (1976). Knudtzon (1977) reported that out of 50 patients with AML, 16 ALL, 10 CML and 5 lymphomas only 38 of the AML patients were evaluable and the treatment was highly variable. Nevertheless, there is an agreement with our results that growth of more than 1000 cell aggregates show the poorest prognosis.…”

“…Several studies have tried to correlate the in vitro growth pattern to prognostic outcome (Moore et a1 1974, Chervenick 1975, Curtis et a1 1975, Spitzer et a1 1976, Hornsten et a1 1977, Knudtzon 1977, Vincent et a1 1977, Beran et a1 1980. The results have been variable depending on differences in culture technique, sources of CSA, classification of growth pattern and therapy, although several common features can be identified.…”

The Effect of Sonicated Serum on Growth of Normal and Leukaemic Human Cells in Agar Cultures

“…In leukaemic cell cultures from untreated patients, sonicated serum was found to be inhibitory in several of the cases, not only in single layer assays, as seen in normal cultures, but also in feeder layer-stimulated cultures. There is circumstantial evidence that the growth in cell cultures from most of the patients with untreated AML and from patients with CML is derived from leukaemic cells (Moore & Metcalf 1973, Moore et a1 1974, Knudtzon 1977). On the other hand, growth in cultures from patients with ALL probably represents normal granulopoiesis (Moore et a1 1974).…”

Fanconi's Anaemia Developing Erythroleukaemia

“…Colony growth from CFUc is either absent or abnormal in pancytopenia (Lui et a1 1977) and in acute non-lymphocytic leukaemias (Tebbi et a1 1976, Knudtzon 1977, Vincent et a1 1977. This has also been the case in our patient with no colony growth from bone marrow or peripheral blood during both phases of the disease.…”